Activiti/Activiti · error · ActivitiObjectNotFoundException

no deployed process definition found with id '

Error message

no deployed process definition found with id '

What it means

DeploymentManager.findDeployedProcessDefinitionById throws ActivitiObjectNotFoundException when neither the process definition cache nor the process definition entity manager can resolve the given id. This means the id is well-formed and non-null but no deployed process definition with that id exists in this engine's database. The ProcessDefinition.class is attached as the missing entity reference.

Solutions

1. Verify the id exists via repositoryService.createProcessDefinitionQuery().processDefinitionId(id).singleResult() before use
2. Re-obtain the id from the current database instead of hardcoding it (list latest definitions by key)
3. Check you are connected to the correct database/engine (JDBC URL, schema)
4. If the deployment was deleted, redeploy the process definition or restore from a backup

Example fix

// before
ProcessDefinition pd = repositoryService.getProcessDefinition(savedId); // may be gone
// after
ProcessDefinition pd = repositoryService.createProcessDefinitionQuery()
  .processDefinitionId(savedId).singleResult();
if (pd == null) {
  pd = repositoryService.createProcessDefinitionQuery()
    .processDefinitionKey(key).latestVersion().singleResult();
}

// Java, check existence first
long n = repositoryService.createProcessDefinitionQuery()
  .processDefinitionId(id).count();
if (n == 0) throw new IllegalStateException("unknown process definition id: " + id);

// Java
try {
  runtimeService.startProcessInstanceById(defId);
} catch (ActivitiObjectNotFoundException e) {
  if (ProcessDefinition.class.equals(e.getObjectClass())) {
    // fall back to latest definition by key
    return startByKey(fallbackKey);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling repositoryService.getProcessDefinition(id)/startProcessInstanceById(id)/runtime lookups with an id from a different database or engine; using an id deleted by a cascading deployment delete; an id string with wrong casing or whitespace.

Common situations: Copying process definition ids between dev/staging databases; running multiple engine instances against different schemas and mixing ids; cleanup jobs that removed old deployments while external systems still reference their ids.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot find execution with id
• Cannot find process definition for id '
• Cannot find process definition for key '
• Cannot find process definition with id
• Cannot find process definition with id

AI-assisted analysis of Activiti/Activiti@56435b1a97 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/948bd9037e11ba59. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at activiti-core/activiti-engine/src/main/java/org/activiti/engine/impl/persistence/deploy/DeploymentManager.java:79

    public void deploy(DeploymentEntity deployment, Map<String, Object> deploymentSettings) {
        for (Deployer deployer : deployers) {
            deployer.deploy(deployment, deploymentSettings);
        }
    }

    public ProcessDefinition findDeployedProcessDefinitionById(String processDefinitionId) {
        if (processDefinitionId == null) {
            throw new ActivitiIllegalArgumentException("Invalid process definition id : null");
        }

        // first try the cache
        ProcessDefinitionCacheEntry cacheEntry = processDefinitionCache.get(processDefinitionId);
        ProcessDefinition processDefinition = cacheEntry != null ? cacheEntry.getProcessDefinition() : null;

        if (processDefinition == null) {
            processDefinition = processDefinitionEntityManager.findById(processDefinitionId);
            if (processDefinition == null) {
                throw new ActivitiObjectNotFoundException(
                    "no deployed process definition found with id '" + processDefinitionId + "'",
                    ProcessDefinition.class
                );
            }
            processDefinition = resolveProcessDefinition(processDefinition).getProcessDefinition();
        }
        return processDefinition;
    }

    public ProcessDefinition findDeployedLatestProcessDefinitionByKey(String processDefinitionKey) {
        ProcessDefinition processDefinition = processDefinitionEntityManager.findLatestProcessDefinitionByKey(
            processDefinitionKey
        );

        if (processDefinition == null) {
            throw new ActivitiObjectNotFoundException(
                "no processes deployed with key '" + processDefinitionKey + "'",
                ProcessDefinition.class

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